Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Superman & Aquaman must rescue a kidnapped scientist (narrator Bill Woodson in a dual role) and his experimental mining device from a greedy undersea pirate named Nemis in "The Invisible Menace":

Yes, Nemis was inspired by Jules Verne's Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea), just a couple of years after Hanna-Barbera had mounted an adaptation of the novel for CBS' Famous Classic Tales. Just two years later, they would use another Nemo analogue for an episode of The World's Greatest Super Friends.

In 1994, Chicago promoter Paul Alperstein came up with a novel idea in professional wrestling, creating a promotion that would have matches contested in a format similar to boxing and the then-up-and-coming UFC.

The American Wrestling Federation, however, was a way station for veteran stars of the AWA, NWA/WCW, and WWF/E who were looking to extend their careers. In short, this was really no different than any number of independent promotions in the US that will sign name talent to boost attendance or, in Alperstein's case, television ratings.

AWF Warriors of Wrestling premiered 22 years ago, with former AWA announcer Mick Karch doing play-by-play alongside Terry Taylor. You won't hear it in the premiere, but over the course of the two year run, Taylor would demonstrate some skills as an impressionist, doing mimics of Dusty Rhodes, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and others, while pretending to abandon Karch in the booth.

Let's take a look at future Hall of Famers the Road Warriors in action. Lord Alfred Hayes is on color commentary.

Matches were meant to be 3 rounds, 4 minutes apiece, with a short rest break in between rounds. Translated, it was a 15 minute time limit with a twist. Unfortunately, the AWF didn't last long on local screens, if at all, and was a distant memory by the time the bigger promotions began the "Monday Night Wars".

Monday, February 27, 2017

Bugs Bunny meets the Three Little Pigs in a warped reboot of the latter's classic story in 1949's "The Windblown Hare". The Pigs aren't exactly the simple siblings as originally presented, oh no. They have to be the villains here, conning Bugs into buying the straw & stick houses that will be blown out by the Big Bad Wolf. Look for a cross-reference to Little Red Riding Hood, which Bugs skewered a few years earlier.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

It was inevitable that Shaggy's endless appetite would get him in trouble.

In the 2nd season premiere of What's New Scooby-Doo, Shaggy (Casey Kasem) is framed for the actions of a 30-foot tall robot duplicate, designed by Professor Pomfritt (special guest star William Schallert), who is jealous of a rival's success. As it happens, Pomfritt had just given Velma (Mindy Cohn) a prize for her latest invention........

Here's "Big Appetite in Little Tokyo":

Schallert had played a school teacher, also named Pomfritt, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis nearly 50 years earlier.

I've written before how the 1981 Spider-Man solo series didn't air in the home district, even though it did launch 2 days after Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends premiered on NBC. Some episodes were released individually or in groups on video.

In "Doctor Doom, Master of the World", the Latverian monarch abducts the President and places him under mind control. I've said in the past that I had assumed that Brad Crandall, long the voice of Sunn Classic Pictures, voiced Doom, but a Wikipedia entry claims that it was Ralph James (Mork & Mindy) who essayed the part. Judge for yourselves.

Note, too, that Spidey/Peter Parker is voiced by a different actor than on Amazing Friends. Seems Marvel's then-nascent television arm, formerly DePatie-Freleng, was still finding its way, as it would have made more sense to use the same actor on both shows.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

In the final season of The Flintstones, the show's writers began skewering pop music more so than in previous seasons. In fact, it was in the season opener that Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm became pop stars in a dream that Fred (Alan Reed) was having. Shindig host Jimmy O'Neill crossed over, along with the Beau Brummels, for one episode.

In the episode, "Masquerade Party", a quartet of aliens land in Bedrock, and their unique look enables a record company executive (Mel Blanc, using his Secret Squirrel voice) to dismiss the Beasties (Beatles parody) and sign a group now known as the Wayouts.

Reed is also heard as Sam Sandstone, a fellow member of the Water Buffalo lodge, who sounds suspiciously like Fred.

It just so happened that Secret Squirrel debuted that same year, albeit over on NBC, which would pick up rerun rights to The Flintstones not long after the series ended.

Professor Baffles (Casey Kasem in a dual role) is one of those misguided types who thinks he's doing something to benefit mankind by making all kinds of literature disappear. Ah, but there's a lesson to be learned, as Baffles is double-crossed by his henchmen. Here's "The Baffles Puzzle":

Wendy's volunteer job at the library suggests a call-back to Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon, whose other job was as a librarian, per her earliest appearances in the 60's. Too bad Batgirl never got to appear in this series, as Hanna-Barbera never obtained the rights.

Disco Larry has served up Sister Sledge's monster hit of 1979, "We Are Family", from an appearance on American Bandstand. The graphics that pop up during the performance suggest this was recorded on VHS.

The Pittsburgh Pirates adopted "We Are Family" as their theme song en route to a World Series title that fall. Sister Sledge would score again with "He's The Greatest Dancer", but then would slowly fade from the pop and R & B scenes.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

A Lone Ranger fan channel has turned up on YouTube. The playlist includes episodes of the 1980 Filmation reboot of the series, with William Conrad, fresh from Cannon, as the voice of the Ranger. Conrad, though, was billed as J. Darnoc (Conrad spelled backwards) for some unknown reason. There's no mistaking that distinctive voice, though.

Right now, let's take a look at "The Abduction of Tom Sawyer". It's not what you think, especially considering that Tom's creator, Mark Twain, figures prominently in the story.

Filmation had first acquired a license for The Lone Ranger 8 years earlier when the Ranger, then voiced by John Erwin, made a guest appearance on The Brady Kids. Unlike the 1966 series, 2 seasons were produced, with the second season episodes considerably shorter to make room for Zorro. CBS needed another legendary hero to share an hour with Tarzan after The New Adventures of Batman and the remaining remnants of Tarzan & The Super 7, rechristened Batman & The Super 7, moved to NBC for their final season. The problem was, the Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour was buried near the bottom of the lineup. Adding Zorro the next year didn't help.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

During the course of Rhoda's run (1974-8), folks wondered if they'd ever get a glimpse of Carlton, the doorman in Rhoda Morganstern's apartment building in Manhattan. No, they wouldn't. Nearly 2 years later, the man who gave voice to Carlton, Lorenzo Music, decided it was time to let everyone see Carlton, albeit in an animated cartoon.

Carlton, Your Doorman has only aired once, in 1980. Why that is, I don't know. It would end up being the last time Music would essay the role, but his future in cartoons was set.

Because it has become a rarity, the show is incomplete online as of right now. All we have is this little sample.

Music not only is the star, but also co-wrote and co-produced the program. After six years of playing Carlton, Music moved on, and you know the rest of his body of work, mostly as Garfield. He also spent the first two seasons of Real Ghostbusters as Dr. Peter Venkman, but left the show to work on Garfield & Friends, with Dave Coulier (Full House) taking over as Peter. And let's not forget those crash dummies ads for the Ad Council.

Co-directors Charles Swenson & Fred Wolf would later join forces with Glen Murakami and produce the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, among other things.

Rating: None. The poor audio quality of the above sample made this hard to gauge.

Even though the following video uses the intro from The All-New Super Friends Hour, which marks its 40th anniversary this year, the episode, "Battle at the Earth's Core" came a year later, as evidenced by the episode title card.

Anyway, the Wonder Twins are with a new friend, Capt. Pierre Marcelle, just outside of Honolulu, when the boat they're sailing on is sucked into a huge whirlpool. The Super Friends follow the trail, and find a bizarre world at the earth's core, but not the same as in "Invasion of the Earthors" from the previous year.

The scene where the first tar monster appears was used as part of the opening montage for The World's Greatest Super Friends the very next year.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

George of the Jungle, Jay Ward's dimwitted send-up of Tarzan, hits the milestone. If there was ever a cartoon hero who needed to be tested for concussions, George would be it, considering how many times he's crashed into trees.

Digression over. In "Monkey Business", George (Bill Scott, who also is one of the executive producers) has to rescue Ape (Paul Frees) from a pair of poachers. Frees, of course, also narrates.

The shorter intro at the start of this video is the one used to queue each of George's adventures.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Fred Flintstone (Alan Reed) will do anything to 1) make a few extra bucks and 2) impress his daughter, Pebbles. In this 5th season episode of The Flintstones, Fred steps in when the star of the TV show, Superstone, quits, right before a scheduled personal appearance in Bedrock. This leaves Barney (Mel Blanc) to mind Pebbles, as well as his own adopted son, Bamm-Bamm.

Superstone, of course, was a parody of Superman, who would be licensed to Hanna-Barbera 8 years after this episode aired, with the launch of Super Friends.

Waaaaaakkkk!!!! Clarence "Ducky" Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, appeared as an imposter on To Tell The Truth in October 1963. Gene Rayburn (Match Game, ex-Choose Up Sides) was filling in for Bud Collyer. Panelists Orson Bean & Tom Poston would have that chore the following two weeks.

Nash appears in game 2, but didn't get a single vote from Bean, Poston, Sheila MacRae, & Kitty Carlisle.

Bean & Rayburn would switch places the following week, and the panel would correctly identify two more challengers.

There is at least one episode of Choose Up Sides now available on YouTube. We'd previously posted a standard intro, so maybe we'll get a full show up soon.

Before landing a Saturday morning berth on CBS, Linus the Lionhearted (Sheldon Leonard) was the animated pitchman for Post's Crispy Critters cereal. The running gag in the ads was that as soon as the name of the cereal was invoked, Linus would be run over by a horde of animal-shaped cereal pieces as if it were a real stampede.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Dandy Deal brings another "lost" Terrytoons character, Duckwood, who, according to the Big Cartoon Database, appeared in 3 shorts in 1964. Duckwood, however, appears to be the second banana, as his partner, a WC Fields soundalike, carries most of the action. Dayton Allen did the voices.

Here's the last of those three shorts, "Oil Thru The Day":

The music at the end was later recycled for syndicated reruns of Mighty Mouse in the 70's.

It has been a tradition in wrestling that some characters aren't really foreigners or Native Americans. For example, the late Chief Jay Strongbow was, for many years, played by a man of Italian background. The late Yokozuna (Rodney Anoai), billed as being from Japan early in his run with the then-World Wrestling Federation in the 90's, was actually Samoan, and came over from the AWA, where he had been billed as Kokina Maximus, and, yes, as a Samoan. Mr. Fuji, who passed away late last year, wasn't from Japan, either, but really from Hawaii, and perhaps as a nod to his true heritage, adopted the look of the state's most famous fictional detective, Charlie Chan, in the mid-80's.

That brings us to Ivan Koloff, who passed away yesterday at 74. Koloff was no more legitimately a Russian than his storyline nephew, Nikita, was. Nikita was actually as American as apple pie. Ivan, born Oreal Parris, was orignally from the Quebec province in Canada, but after an early stint as an Irish heel named Red McNulty, adopted the persona that would define his career. Koloff, managed by Captain Lou Albano, defeated Bruno Sammartino in 1971 at Madison Square Garden to win his only World title as a singles wrestler. It was, unfortunately, a short reign, as Koloff dropped the strap less than a month later to Pedro Morales.

Strangely, Koloff is not in the WWE Hall of Fame. That might be because he spent a larger chunk of his career in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where many fans rediscovered him in the 80's when the Atlanta based superstation, (W)TBS, began beaming in the Northeast. Koloff won several tag team titles in the NWA with various partners, including Nikita and, before that, Don Kernodle.

In 1988, promoter Jim Crockett, Jr. experimented with the idea of Ivan Koloff as a babyface (good guy). Nikita had turned babyface two years earlier in an emergency when Magnum TA (Terry Allen) was sidelined by an auto accident that prematurely ended his career. Now, with manager Paul Jones having turned his back on Ivan Koloff, a "civil war" of a different kind is brewing. Footage from World Wide Wrestling, the NWA's long running syndicated program.

In 1995, Ivan Koloff renounced the partying lifestyle of the 70's & 80's, and became a born again Christian, just like Nikita. Oreal Parris became an ordained minister, a path that fellow heels Tully Blanchard & Ted DiBiase, Sr. would also walk at the end of their careers. However, Parris was also dealing with liver cancer, the result of all that partying and substance abuse. On Friday, God called him home. Maybe now WWE will consider adding Koloff to the Hall of Fame. Virtually all of the company's World champions from its early years, from Buddy Rogers to Edge, with the exception of current stars John Cena, Randy Orton, and Triple H, to name a few, are already in the Hall, and Triple H had done yeoman's work behind the scenes to get Sammartino enshrined a few years ago. The "Cerebral Assassin" is also a historian, so figure he'll get the ball rolling soon enough.

Before embarking on a successful voice acting career, Mike Road had been a fixture on Broadway, in films, and in television. In 1958, he landed a co-starring role in the short-lived NBC Western, Buckskin, as Marshal Tom Sellers, six years before he was cast as Roger "Race" Bannon in Jonny Quest.

Mike enters the picture roughly around the seven minute mark of the episode, "The Trial of Chrissy Miller":

The Grim Reaper's been very busy in the wrestling world over the last couple of weeks. First, there was Chavo Guerrero, Sr. (known as Chavo Classic for marketing purposes during his brief stint with WWE in 2004), who passed away last week. Then, in quick succession, over the last 48 hours, we've lost Hall of Famer George "The Animal" Steele, whom we'll talk about shortly, Nicole Bass, who, according to conflicting reports, either is still on life support, or may have passed on at 52, and, finally, former WWWF World champ Ivan Koloff, who lost a bout with liver cancer.

The interesting paradox with Steele (William James Myers) is that the Animal was, essentially, an alter-ego. Outside the ring, the college educated Myers was a football coach and teacher in his native Michigan who took his name from a rival football coach. This would explain why a lot of Steele's appearances were mostly in the summer. Once he gave up his academic career, Steele became a full-time wrestler, settling into the guise of a modern neanderthal with an appetite for turnbuckles. He was never a World champion, but was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006.

We'll look at Ivan Koloff tomorrow, but now, here's a video montage of Steele from June 1983, with Vince McMahon & Pat Patterson at the mic's. Both matches are against the same jobber, Steve King, with a promo in between promoting what would be a World title match vs. Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden.

Beneath the persona of the Animal laid a brother in Christ who was called home. Rest in peace.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Having been portrayed by three different actors during the three seasons of the live-action Batman, Mr. Freeze makes the first of three appearances in the 1968 animated series, voiced by Ted Knight. On a hot summer day, Mr. Freeze begins freezing Gotham City's water, then steals a whale. Check out Batman's 1st animated bout with "The Cool, Cruel Mr. Freeze":

If anything, the 1992 series made Freeze more of a sympathetic character, expanding and retooling his origins to better explain his unique condition.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

While Ted Nichols was the credited musical director for the Cattanooga Cats series, the musical numbers were produced by Mike Curb, who was also scoring Ken Snyder's two freshman series for ABC that same year, Hot Wheels & Skyhawks. Curb took the sneaky route with this next track.

Credited as "Sittin' By The Fireside", this song was originally known as "Cold Wisconsin Nights", and recorded by the American Revolution about a year or two before this series hit the air. The common link? Curb produced both records, along with Michael Lloyd. Sounds to me like he used the original American Revolution track in this spot, and changed the title, thinking no one would be the wiser.

Seeking shelter from a storm, Gary Gulliver (Jerry Dexter) and his Lilliputian friends hide out in a cave. However, Captain Leech (John Stephenson) seals the entrance. That leads Gary and company into "The Valley of Time":

I'm sure you could tell that Flirtacia (Ginny Tyler) lived up to her name, swooning over Gary throughout the series. There was one story where Gary and his dog, Tagg, ended up shrinking to Lilliputian size. We'll have that story down the road.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man's TV debut. From that first season, we present the first TV appearance of the Scorpion, a common crook who was given powers by a mad scientist hired by J. Jonah Jameson as part of the publisher's obsessive quest to discredit the wall-crawler. Here's "Never Step on a Scorpion":

Time to take another trip to Fort Courage for a 2nd season episode of F-Troop.

Sgt. O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) & Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch) are on a scouting mission. Out of water and thirsty, Agarn begins seeing mirages, but things change when the horses are stolen by an Apache maiden who isn't what she seems.

Turns out that "Yellow Bird" was abducted by the Apaches as a child, and when she leaves behind a clue to her true identity, O'Rourke, Agarn, and Captain Parmenter (Ken Berry) set up a family reunion with her biological father. Good thing, since Yellow Bird has designs on the captain, much to the jealous consternation of Wrangler Jane (Melody Patterson). Julie Newmar swaps her Catwoman jumpsuit from Batman for a Native American dress.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Unsurprisingly, during season 1 of The All-New Popeye Hour, CBS managed to gain a primetime special, the first for the spinach-eating sailor (Jack Mercer). "Sweethearts at Sea" is an elongated version of a typical Popeye plot from the 60's involving the Sea Hag (Marilyn Schreffler, who also voices Olive Oyl), who all of a sudden is smitten with Popeye. Bluto (Allan Melvin) is, of course, more than willing to see to it that he gets Olive all to himself, but you know how this will end, don't you?

Yes, it's the same theme song used on Saturday mornings. I guess the intention was that if possible, they could replay this in the rerun cycle of the regular series, but I'm not sure if they ever did.

You're In Love, Charlie Brown premiered on CBS in April 1967, and was nominated for an Emmy award. You're probably well aware of Charlie's struggles just trying to talk to the "Little Red Haired Girl", who would be talked about, but rarely seen for years. This, to the TV audience, is where it all began.

To think that this special turns 50 this year, but hasn't been seen in some time. Oh, Charlie would find love, however fleeting, in the years to follow, even gaining a short-term girlfriend. Maybe the fact that Charlie had so little hair to start with might have something to do with his misfortune.......

Monday, February 13, 2017

The Wonder Twins spring into action when a teenager decides to jump a dangerous ravine to impress his friends in "Pressure Point".

For what it's worth, Michael Bell (Zan/Gleek) & Louise "Liberty" Williams (Jayna) also voice two of the teens in the party. Seems Michael had at least one extra part in each short.

I can empathize with Zan's misfortune at the skating rink. I tried ice skating just once in my life. Couldn't balance my weight on the blades no matter how I tried. Give me roller skates any day of the week.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Disney cleverly edited a Donald Duck short to create this ad for the March of Dimes from 1954. Huey, Dewey, & Louie made $3 from shoveling snow, but they want to spend the money on sodas. Donald's got other ideas.

Canada's Nelvana Studios served up a very, very loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, set in the far flung future.

Romie-o & Julie-8 was premiered in syndication in April 1979, but hasn't seen the light of day much since. As with The Devil & Daniel Mouse, ex-Lovin' Spoonful frontman John Sebastian wrote much of the music, aided this time by The Band's Richard Manuel and a then-unknown blues singer-songwriter who'd later become a household name, especially in the home district, Rory Block.

The plot: The titular androids meet at a convention, where Romie-o saves Julie-8 from an overly amorous human. We all know that robots aren't supposed to have human emotions, but it's become increasingly common in science fiction to give androids human feelings, to make it easier for them to fit in. Luckily, unlike Shakespeare's original story, this has a happy ending. Of course it would.

How the networks passed on this, I'll never know, though it probably did air on a Canadian network........!

Body Language, a mid-80's CBS game show that was a revival of Goodson-Todman's 1975 series, Showoffs, had been on the air less than a year when the network acceded to viewer requests to let kids play the game.

And so, right before Easter, on the week of April 8-12, 1985, the first Teen Week commenced on Body Language. Actors Jason Bateman, at the time on It's Your Move, and Kim Fields (The Facts of Life) were featured stars.

This was so successful, the kids were brought back during the summer. Unfortunately, Body Language was cancelled in January 1986.

Friday, February 10, 2017

The writers of the 1966 Lone Ranger series didn't exactly have Robert Louis Stevenson in mind when they came up with the masked "Black Arrow" (Michael Rye) as an opponent for Tonto (Shep Menken), but make of this however you will.

The only time Batman's romantic nemesis, Catwoman (Jane Webb), deigned to foster any sentimental feelings during the 1968 animated series came in this next offering.

The Princess of Plunder uses a stray cat, which takes an immediate liking to Robin (Casey Kasem), to lure the Masked Manhunters into a trap. Unfortunately for all you Bat-Cat shippers, Catwoman doesn't even try to flirt with the Dark Knight.

Here's "From Catwoman With Love":

There wouldn't be any shipping between Batman & Catwoman on screen for another 24 years.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

In the late 50's, Gene Deitch was brought to Terrytoons to help develop new stars. Deitch decided that it was past time that Terrytoons began creating human characters to complement, though in this case they would replace, classic characters like Heckle & Jeckle and Mighty Mouse.

Unfortunately, John Doormat was not the answer.

Doormat appeared in 4 shorts total between 1956-9, but the animation was much more limited than usual, lacking the fluidity of earlier works. It didn't help that Doormat wasn't really a likeable character. As demonstrated in 1957's "Topsy TV", Doormat is, to use modern parlance, whipped. His wife treats him like a child, seeing that John comes home from work soooooooooo tired. You take a look at the scene where John gets off the bus, and you'd swear this wasn't Terrytoons, but rather a Famous Studios entry from the same period.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Comics fans know that Brainiac, one of Superman's oldest enemies, had shrunken the city of Kandor, now preserved forever in a bottle kept in the Fortress of Solitude so the Man of Steel can maintain contact with his fellow Kryptonians.

Someone at Hanna-Barbera decided to tweak that concept for 1977's "City in a Bottle". While the Kandorians wouldn't appear on TV for a while yet, a barbarian from a frozen world steals an Earth city where the Wonder Twins are visiting, and heads for home with the Super Friends in hot pursuit.

It's too bad they never really followed up on the subplot of Gleek and his female admirer. H-B would revisit that particular plot device 4 years later on Space Stars, using Blip as the object of a female monkey's affection.

To cartoon buffs, Bill Thompson is best known as the original voice of Droopy, and also essayed the role of park ranger J. Audubon Woodlore in a few Disney cartoons. Like many voice actors of the Golden Age, Bill came from radio (particularly Fibber McGee & Molly), but he was in another line of work when he was brought to New York to appear on To Tell The Truth in 1959. Another radio alum and voice actor, of course, is host Bud Collyer (Superman).

Bill is in game 2, which begins around the 9 minute mark or so.

Figuring out which of the three men was Bill was rather easy, wasn't it?

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Jane Jetson (Penny Singleton) enters a beauty contest in which husband George (George O'Hanlon) is one of the judges. We've shown you the musical number used in "Miss Solar System", but now you get this complete episode of The Jetsons.

Later this year, the Jetsons will meet some of the superstars of the WWE in a brand new DTV. What next?

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Tyco introduced the Dino Riders in 1988, and licensed the product to Marvel for not only a comic book miniseries, but a short-lived animated series that was a component of Marvel Action Universe, a weekly syndicated anthology series that Marvel had released. The comics came out after the series had ended.

As with Sectaurs, which we looked at yesterday, we never saw the show when it first came out, so there isn't a rating. Take note of the animation in the first couple of minutes of the opener, as this was inspired by A-Ha's 1985 video, "Take on Me".

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Sectaurs: Warriors of Symbion (to use the full title) launched as a toy line from Coleco in 1984. Marvel Comics acquired a license to produce a comic book in 1985, which lasted 8 bi-monthly issues. In the spring of 1986, Ruby-Spears, instead of Marvel, produced a 5-part miniseries that was supposed to lead to an ongoing series the following fall, but there was not a continuation to be had.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Quacula was a backup feature in Filmation's New Adventures of Mighty Mouse & Heckle & Jeckle, which ran for 1 season on CBS in 1979. Actually, by the time the season ended, the series had been reduced to a half-hour. Why? Well, there's an explanation for that.

Animator and comics artist Scott Shaw! had created a vampire duck called Duckula three years earlier for a independent publisher, Star*Reach. When he saw that Quacula had a few too many similarities to his creation, Shaw! filed suit against Filmation. The matter was settled out of court, resulting in Quacula getting cancelled after all 16 episodes had aired. Those shorts had to be edited off subsequent rebroadcasts.

Frank Welker performs all the voices, except for Theodore Bear (co-executive producer Norm Prescott), forever scheming to evict Quacula and his egg-shaped coffin from the aging mansion they call home.

Up until now, English language versions of the shorts were hard to come by. One enterprising soul on YouTube put all 16 together (I believe), so binge to your heart's content, as the shorts add up to nearly 2 hours of comedy.

There are, of course, some flaws. For example, vampires don't cast reflections in mirrors or windows, and yet Quacula has a hand-held mirror he can use.

The British, of course, introduced us to Count Duckula a few years later, which was far more popular. I wonder if Shaw! had any issues with him.....

The petty squabbling between Fox and Marvel/Disney in recent times has resulted in Marvel breaking up The Fantastic Four in the books, at least until such time where Marvel/Disney can regain movie rights to the FF, considering that Fox has made three FF movies in the last 12 years, and all three have failed to live up to fan expectations. In fact, the movies have been progressively worse, culminating in the stink bomb that Fox coughed up in 2015.

Take heart, though, peeps. There's always the cartoons of the 60's, 70's, 90's, and even the abysmal World's Greatest Heroes series that Marvel outsourced to Mike Young and Moonscoop about a decade or so ago.

Hanna-Barbera's adaptation marks 50 years this year. To celebrate, let's take you back to the FF's first meeting with the alchemist known as "Diablo":

Personal note. I went back to my alma mater the other night for a basketball game. After the junior varsity game ended, I meandered down to the cafeteria, which doubles as a concession stand during basketball season. I couldn't help but notice that they don't have soft drinks in the vending machines anymore. It's part of a growing movement to reduce childhood obesity and promote healthier eating. Instead of soda and sugary fruit juices (no diet sodas were present), the vending machines had water and Gatorade.

My point? The movement is a throwback to a simpler, happier time, when it was cool to promote complete, healthy, nutritious breakfasts.

Let's take a trip back in time to 1959. Oklahoma football coach Bud Wilkinson, later a color analyst for ABC after his coaching career ended, is plugging Quaker oatmeal. Mother's Oats is another Quaker brand.